Learn the Tricks of Video Marketing for Startup Growth Hacking
Consider these stats about video marketing from an article on WordStream:
- 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
- 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video.
- Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more.
- Blog posts incorporating video attract 3x as many inbound links as blog posts without video.
- Internet video traffic will be 69% of all global consumer Internet traffic in 2017.
- The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.
These and many other staggering statistics indicate that video is the next big thing in digital marketing and content marketing. Have you ever wondered what video marketing could do for your startup? The opportunities are plenty and can help you immensely in attracting the attention of investors, media and customers. The result? Faster success for you business. In this interview with Robert Cassard, we help you understand how videos can help you in growth-hacking and what you can do to get there.
Robert Cassard is a Video Growth Hacker, Award-Winning Writer-Producer-Director and #1 Bestselling Author.
How important is video marketing for startups today?
Here’s a direct quote from venture capital guru Andrew Romans: “Videos have become super important for consumer companies, Kickstarter, pre-sales hopefuls and ongoing startups.”
Romans’ statement confirms that every startup needs a comprehensive video strategy or else it voluntarily handicaps itself. Starting and growing a business without video marketing is like trying to win an auto race on a bicycle. Video is well-proven to be the single most effective and predictable tool to growth hack a new venture.
How can a startup generate sales leads through videos?
I wrote a whole book on this subject. If I had to offer a single piece of advice about lead generation using video, it would be to put your audience’s needs and desires ahead of your own.
Startups often make the mistake of pushing their brand too hard right up front. They’re desperate to stand out — to be memorable. That’s a goal and a habit based on the old “brand awareness” model of advertizing. It’s a difficult and expensive way to gain users and customers.
Instead of pushing your brand, keep your focus only on what brings value to your users or customers. Make it all about them, not you. This selfless approach attracts many more prospects into the top of a sales funnel than sexy branding ever does.
How can startups use video marketing for promoting themselves to investors and media?
One of video marketing’s most powerful traits is how it transcends people’s aversion to reading words on a page.
In the case of investors, a startup must present its facts, projections and exit strategy on paper. But all investors know the written documents are largely a theoretical snapshot of the company and its future. Communicating with investors in a video immediately makes the startup’s potential success seem more real and tangible. This can be accomplished via interviews with company founders, moving images of the products, design and manufacturing processes, or an animated explanation of what makes the product or service valuable and relevant.
Similar to investors, the media relies on written materials for its assessment of a new venture. But, every reporter is more apt to get excited and want to report about what they see with their own eyes than what they read in a self-interested news release or press kit. Today, you simply can’t have an effective media strategy and Electronic Press Kit without including a video, or preferably multiple videos from multiple perspectives.
How can entrepreneurs use videos for personal branding?
As I mentioned earlier, people generally don’t like to read, especially online. So everything written by or about an entrepreneur automatically has a limited impact. What’s more, most entrepreneurs and company founders aren’t expert writers; they have trouble conveying their unique personality and magnetism in writing.
When you put an entrepreneur in front of a video camera, everything changes — either for worse or better.
It’s “worse” when the entrepreneur is stiff on camera. Obvious discomfort on camera hurts a personal brand. The stiff entrepreneur requires lots of practice to de-sensitize and rid themselves of on-camera jitters. The goal is to be 100% natural on video, just as they are in person.
It’s “better” as soon as an entrepreneur is comfortable and engaging on-camera. Video offers unlimited opportunities to leverage an entrepreneur’s time by recording any message once, then making it available on-demand and through an endless variety of social media posts and repurposed uses.
What are the top trends you foresee in video marketing in the coming years?
One key trend is video personalization. My company, Voodoo Video Marketing, has personalized outbound videos for almost 10 years, and our data shows that it consistently doubles response rates.
Another trend is valuing content over the platform. Marketers have come to the harsh realization that having a great automation or inbound marketing platform doesn’t accomplish much if you don’t have great content — and video is, without doubt, the most important type of content because it generates 2X-10X higher results than other types of content, and it does this with remarkable predictability.
The BIG trend is that video will stop being perceived as a marketing luxury, and will instead be recognized as a necessity. Without video, a company simply will not succeed. In fact, without video, it may cease to exist. That’s where I think we’re headed with video marketing…and we’re getting there fast.
About Robert Cassard:
Robert Cassard is a Video Growth Hacker, Award-Winning Writer-Producer-Director and #1 Bestselling Author. Cassard has written, produced and directed hundreds of corporate, commercial, educational and documentary films and videos. As a principal in multiple advertising, PR, video production and automation firms, Cassard has helped emerging and established companies grow rapidly and increase their business valuations using both traditional and viral marketing techniques.
Robert Cassard’s video growth hacking and content marketing strategies have generated hundreds of millions in incremental sales for Fortune 500 companies; including Avnet, GM, Herman Miller, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Logitech, Mitel, Polycom, Sprint and others, along with many small and mid-sized businesses and non-profits.
Cassard is CEO and co-founder of Voodoo Video Marketing Magic, a media production company and cloud-based software platform to automate, co-brand, and personalize video communications.
